No difficulty is experienced in the transfer of eggs in the horizontal direction. Systems have been developed in which eggs placed on a horizontal transfer path are sent onto an inclined or vertical transfer path to be collected to an egg collecting stand, etc. positioned at a different height from the horizontal transfer path. Transfers in directions other than the horizontal have been difficult to carry out smoothly, often resulting in the breaking of the eggs. The need for inclined or vertical transfer between locations of different heights is a requirement to the poultry farming industry using multi-storied cages intended for receiving eggs.
A poultry farm using the multi-storied cage type hen house will be described as an example. Eggs borne by hens fed in each cage come out of each cage onto an egg collecting conveyer positioned along each cage for horizontal transfer and are sent to one section in the hen house. In this section the eggs are transferred to an egg collecting stand, etc. by means of an transfer device.
A conventional transfer device is shown in FIG. 8.
An egg collecting conveyer 1 is provided along cages 6. In a transfer device 2, a belt 4 is applied taut between an upper pulley 3a and an lower pulley 3b and projection-like mounting pieces 4a are provided on the belt 4 at prescribed intervals. Eggs are eventually collected on an egg collecting stand 5.
Mounting levers 6 in the shape of comb teeth are provided both at the front end of the egg collecting conveyer 1 and at the front end of the egg collecting stand 5.
Eggs delivered by the egg collecting conveyors 1 are put onto the mounting levers 6 and scooped and transferred by the projection-like mounting piece 4a on the belt 4 while turning.
At the top position of the belt 4 where the belt 4 is inverted from the cage side to the side of the egg collecting stand 5 (from up to down), each egg of the mounting piece rolls from the projection-like mounting piece 4a ascending to the projection-like mounting piece 4a descending to be held, and then received by the mounting lever 6 of the egg collecting stand 5.
The above transfer device 2 has a disadvantage that, during the inversion of the direction of the belt 4 from up to down, each egg rolls to the advancing projection-like mounting piece 4a, sometimes causing eggs to collide so strongly as to be cracked. This disadvantage cannot be avoided even if the projection-like mounting piece 4a is constructed to be U-shaped.
An inclined conveyor is disadvantageous in that it requires a large space for positioning the conveyor.
Eggs received by the mounting lever 6 of the egg collecting stand 5 are expected to roll down the inclined mounting piece 6 onto the egg collecting stand 5. However, some of the eggs will stay on the mounting lever 6 or will not roll forth on the egg collecting stand 5. In such a case, the next descending projection-like mounting piece 4a will hit the egg staying on the mounting lever 6. In addition, the eggs succeedingly received by the mounting lever 6, while rolling on the egg collecting stand 5, may collide with one another with the possible generation of cracks developing in the eggs.